Monday in Swaziland -council of churches, radio with shongwe

Today is Monday and Brother Shongwe has set up several meetings for us. We went to the Lombardis so we could all ride together in their Bakki (truck). We then went to pick up Brother Shongwe, who had walked to the main road. He lives up in the mountains. We were off then to an appointment with the local radio station. We visited with the programming manager, who was a nice young black woman who was recently put in as program manager. Even though Brother Shongwe and the Lombardis went to the station months previously, this woman had no knowledge, because she was new and no one knew where all of the materials were that they left them. So we had to start over and explain it to her. She seemed pretty enthused about showing "Music and the Spoken Word, because it did not contain sermons and was pretty generic. She said she was looking for something fresh and new and this sounded like it might work. When we left, we felt that it definitely would be considered. Brother Shongwe agreed to follow up the next week. He was pleased.


We then went to meet the Chairman of the Council of Churches. Apparently, for the church to be taken seriously they need to be a member of this council. Once again, the man we met with was new and had never heard of the church, so we spent quite a while answering his questions. Other churches in Swaziland are against having our church in their council and have a lot of misinformation, so we invited the guy to check us out online and to come to the area office for a tour. He seemed to like us, but who knows what will happen when it is presented to the other churches on the Council.



We then went to meet with the King's oldest brother who is a prince. We had a hard time getting in to see him, but we finally did later in the day and Brother Shongwe introduced me as Nomvula. He was very busy and had to get to the bank before they closed, but he likes the church and was very nice. We offered him a tour of our area office and he said he was too busy, but that he would send one of his representatives. Once again Brother Shongwe was pleased. At left is the Prince, Brother Shongwe and Elder Lombardi.

By now, we had spent the entire day and Sister Lombardi needed to go home and fix dinner for the 14 young men that gather at their home for Family Home Evening every Monday. We were invited, but by this time we were so exhausted and we did not want to drive back to our hotel in the dark, so we left. But, it was a very good day.